Great news! We have met 1 of our 5 long-term outcomes to help reduce underage drinking and youth binge drinking in Chickasaw County! In June 2016, we started to implement the Iowa Department of Public Health's "What Do You Throw Away?" underage drinking prevention media campaign as part of the Iowa Partnerships for Success (IPFS) Grant. We set the goal of reaching 85% of our target audience (13 to 16-year-olds) by the end of the grant (September 29, 2019). Strong efforts from our members and supporters helped achieve this goal in under a year! Last spring, Chickasaw County schools surveyed their 6th-10th graders and found that 85% (609) of the 715 Chickasaw County 6th-10th graders who participated in the survey reported they saw media campaign. Now the challenge will be to continue that momentum! The more places youth see the message, the greater the impact the campaign will have!

Over the past year, the coalition ran radio ads, distributed posters to parks, businesses, churches, libraries, wellness centers, and all schools in Chickasaw County; ran video ads (see below) on Twitter and Instagram, and partnered with groups to post the message on their social media pages. In the years to come, we hope to continue working with groups to reach youth where they live, learn, and play. To help with this initiative or other projects that promote healthy choices please comment below or contact us.

The IPFS project is funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on the IPFS Grant, visit https://idph.iowa.gov/substance-abuse/programs/ipfs.

This past summer, we worked with young people from the New Hampton High School SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) chapter and the Jolly Blue Bells 4H group to meet with with business managers to share recommendations to limit the number of alcohol advertisements youth see in their establishments. Addiction research has found that youth who have a greater exposure to alcohol marketing are more likely to start drinking and engage in binge or hazardous drinking. In 2017, Shopko in New Hampton and Main Street Station in Ionia showed their support for preventing underage drinking by signing agreements to take measures that will limit young people's exposure to alcohol advertisements.

This is one of five underage drinking prevention strategies we are organizing through the Iowa Partnerships for Success (IPFS) Grant. We started by visiting grocery and convenience stores with area youth. One thing the students pointed out when going through the stores was that those who sold tobacco primarily kept ads and goods behind the counter, while alcohol products and ads tended to have a much larger presence. We also noticed that some stores already take measures to support healthy choices by the way they display ads and products. This information helped us develop recommendations to start sharing with store managers. This information was then used to update their store policies and practices. Updates were unique to each store, but included keeping alcohol ads higher up or away from candy, ice cream, or toys; keeping alcohol promotions/displays facing inside; prohibiting/removing ads that show celebrities, cartoons, or sports figures; and keeping alcohol to a designated area(s) of the store.

In 2018, we plan to continue reaching out to retailers to find opportunities to contribute to the health and well-being of our communities. We know the best way to do this is to find youth and adults from the communities to have these conversations with us. If you are willing to help with this please let us know!

The IPFS project is funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on the IPFS Grant, visit https://idph.iowa.gov/substance-abuse/programs/ipfs.

Every 3 months, I prepare a quarterly report to let our funders know how we're progressing on reaching our ultimate goals of reducing underage drinking and youth binge drinking. The report, time consuming as it can be, allows me to reflect on our progress and re-energize to continue the work for another 3 months! After completing our report last quarter, I decided to starting pulling out highlights of the report to help our members and supporters celebrate successes, and hopefully, feel eager and excited to continue "trusting the process" laid out for us in the Strategic Prevention Framework that we follow through the Iowa Partnerships for Success (IPFS) Grant.

That being said, here are some of our accomplishments for April through June:

Assessment:

Data on alcohol-related consequences from Pathways and the Clerk of Courts was collected for the County Assessment Workbook

Alcohol-related Chickasaw County Iowa Youth Survey results were reviewed and indicated continued improvement

Fidelity observations were completed at all 3 schools delivering All Stars

Environmental scans at the grocery and convenience stores in the County were completed

Nashua-Plainfield, New Hampton, St. Joseph's Sumner-Fredericksburg surveyed their 6th - 10th graders to assess what media venues reached the most youth from the target age group

Environmental scans of the parks began during high traffic weekends to assess concerns related to alcohol use on city property

Capacity:

A town hall meeting was planned and carried out.

Media advocacy pieces were posted in newspaper and on the coalition website and social media pages to promote All Stars, the media campaign, best practices for alcohol use in public places, and applying appropriate penalties to minors in possession

Information was shared about the project and all 5 strategies at the St. Joe's All Stars celebration

Coalition members were recognized for their contributions and 3 new officers were elected at the annual coalition meeting

Planning:

Planning was a part of all committee meetings to keep strategies moving forward

Implementation:

New Hampton, St. Joseph's, and Nashua-Plainfield finished delivering the All Stars program with their 7th graders. (119 students)

At the St. Joe's celebration ceremony, 2 students shared about their experiences in the program and allowed us to post copies of the speeches on our blog

Two meetings with the Nashua-Plainfield youth and one with New Hampton youth to build their knowledge and awareness about alcohol advertisements and advocacy.

One youth group visited two alcohol retailers to share concerns around alcohol ads and recommendations.

Informational packets with concerns of alcohol advertisements, sample policies, and recommendations were created and shared during meetings with retailers.

With help from Nashua Youth, New Hampton Parks & Rec., and Lawler Little League media campaign images were distributed in schools and at parks, ice cream shops, and pools

A campaign ad ran on Instagram to reach youth via social media.

3 new businesses/community groups posted media images on their social media pages

5 strategy subcommittee meetings were held

The New Hampton Park Board approved a policy that prohibits alcohol use in certain areas during youth parks and recreation and school-related activities.

Signs explaining the New Hampton policy were purchased and placed in them in the parks

A press release to notify the public of the New Hampton park policy change was printed in the New Hampton newspaper and posted on the coalition's blog and social media pages

Committee members visited the Lawler City Council and gained approval to work with a council members on practices to improve alcohol-related issues at the an all-night softball tournament.

The Sheriff's Department completed 8 hours of party patrols and 14 bar walkthroughs.

The Nashua Police Department completed 12 hours of party patrols.

Evaluation

The IPFS Coordinator logged monthly activities and indicators in the evaluation system

All strategy subcommittees completed/reviewed fidelity checklists

All Stars post-tests were completed by students at all 3 schools, and pre and posttest data analysis was conducted by Brilliance Analytics and the IPFS project evaluator.

The subcommittee reviewed the analysis of results from the store scans.

All four schools with sites in the county surveyed their 13 to 16-year-olds to determine if the target population is seeing the campaign, and where they are seeing it.

A survey to measure community perception and beliefs about alcohol regulations was included in the New Hampton school and community town hall meetings

Data was collected from the party patrols and bar walkthroughs carried out by law enforcement.

​I continue to be blown away with the time and energy our coalition members give to helping youth in Chickasaw County make healthy choices! We have seen tremendous progress in reducing underage drinking rates over the past 6 years and it would not have been possible with those individuals and organizations! ​Carol Hopp, CHES, CPSPartnerships for Success CoordinatorPathways Behavioral Servicescarol.hopp@pathwaysb.org

I am going to tell you a little about All Stars. Throughout the year, we have gone to the art room to learn about our future goals. We got to have All Stars class every Wednesday which was a lot of fun, especially since we got to skip math class. During All Stars, we learned a lot about ourselves and who we want to become. We talked about good futures and how to get them, and bad futures and how to avoid them. We discussed our four ideal futures and how we picture ourselves in the future. We worked on many different activities and played many different games to help us learn about our goals. All Stars was a great learning experience and it helped us to get to know who we are and who are fellow classmates are.

My favorite part about All Stars is when we split up in two groups: "The Benchwarmers," and "We are the Beastest." At the beginning of All Stars, we took a survey to describe different things like (how we felt about) drugs and our goals. When we played "Family Feud," the questions were based off of that survey. It was actually pretty difficult because we couldn't remember all of our answers, but we had a lot of fun. Mrs. Knutson was a great teacher and she was always willing to answer our questions and help us learn. All Stars was a great learning experience and I am very grateful that we were able to be involved in this program.

We are pleased to announce the New Hampton Park Board has approved changes to strengthen their policies related to alcohol use. On January 4, the board decided to include information about the County Social Host Ordinance in the spring flyer and on their shelter reservation forms. “We knew we needed to make our renters aware of their responsibility to keep alcohol out of the hands of youth” stated Rick Kramer, Park and Recreation Director. “ We have family reunions, birthday parties, and wedding rehearsals that occasionally involve alcohol and we want to ensure our park users do their part to ensure safety at their events.” The board also reviewed their policies related to where alcohol can be consumed in the park and decided at their April 5, 2017 meeting to update their policy to prohibit alcohol use around the ball fields during youth park and recreation and school-related events. State law prohibits alcohol from being consumed on public streets and sidewalks, but park regulations are less clear. The goal with these changes it to create more clarity and ultimately provide less opportunities for youth to access alcohol.

Working to strengthen city policies related to alcohol use in the parks is one of five underage drinking strategies we have helped organize through the Iowa Partnerships for Success (IPFS) Grant. We began the process by conducting assessments of the parks during Heartland Days and on an average weekend. This allowed us to sit down with park leaders to discuss practices that are meeting safety standards and areas for improvement. We were able to find common ground and identify practical changes that could be made to reduce opportunities for youth to access alcohol in public places. We plan to continue working with cities in Chickasaw County to find opportunities to strengthen alcohol-related policies, reduce risk for underage drinking, and promote public safety.

The IPFS project is funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on the IPFS Grant, visit https://idph.iowa.gov/substance-abuse/programs/ipfs. For information on Chickasaw County’s project and how to get involved, contact Carol Hopp at carol.hopp@pathwaysb.org or 563-380-4032.

All Stars is a program for 7th graders. All Stars teaches us about our futures, how to have good futures, to stay away from drugs, and many other things. I've been through the D.A.P. Drug, Awareness, Program. We learned a lot in that so I was like "come on, we have to do this again?!" No, this is actually a lot different. In All Stars, we went every Wednesday; we listed some goals, then went through them. Some things we did were, we got in groups and made futuristic things that would be helpful. My group had the food maker, another had a teeth straightener thing, and another had a time machine. I learned a lot, from setting goals and finding goals I want, to getting in groups and discussing how to stand up to bullies. We had a list of goals; we had to choose 4. It was hard because there were a lot of positive ones and most of those were the ones we wanted. I chose wealth, achievement, adventure, and fitness. Yes, I'm going to need those in my future, but I'm going to need a lot more and that's why we all need to start thinking about them today. We all wrote, then made a video of our commitments so, with the help from friends, schoolmates, family, teachers, and trusted adults, we will all make it and keep our commitments to keep ourselves and everyone else safe.

My name is Emma Nicolaisen and I am a senior at New Hampton High School. I am currently an intern for Pathways Behavioral Services working with the Chickasaw Connections Coalition at their substance abuse prevention office in New Hampton. I have been working there, side by side with Carol Hopp since November of last year. Throughout this internship, I have had a lot of hands on experience that I can take with me to utilize in the workplace. I have attended coalition meetings, conducted focus groups, prepared flyers and data spreadsheets, and evaluated advertising policies and practices at stores in Chickasaw County. This internship was more about me taking the lead on certain projects than sitting on the sidelines, and I really enjoyed that!My favorite project was preparing and conducting a focus group. There were about 6 students who volunteered their time to answer a few questions about drug and alcohol use within the school. With this information, Pathways and Chickasaw Connections has been able to listen directly to the youth, and how they interpret the drug and alcohol use around them. I thought it was really interesting listening to kids a few years younger than me talking about their thoughts on drugs and alcohol. With my time at Pathways, I have developed a vast amount of skills. I learned how to communicate, be a leader, and understand and distribute data. This internship has helped me so much more than I could have ever thought! I would definitely recommend this internship to anyone who is interested. Working with Carol and people within the community has been a once in a lifetime type of experience. ​

This month we are partnering with area law enforcement to remind parents of the dangers of underage drinking and the legal consequences they could face for hosting parties for minors with the “Parents Who Host Lose the Most” campaign from Drug Free Action Alliance. Posters and yard signs with this message will be distributed throughout the county to discourage underage drinking as the school year ends and summer begins. In addition, officers are gearing up to conduct another round of party patrols and bar walkthroughs. These efforts increase the number of law enforcement officers patrolling and responding to reports of underage drinking and walking through bars to ensure laws related to alcohol sales are followed.

Underage drinking remains a concern in our area as we continue to hear reports of sexual assaults, injuries, and traffic violations where underage drinking is involved. We hope these efforts not only help reduce these severe, immediate consequences, but also help create a new norm where we all acknowledge that providing young people with alcohol is not doing them any favors, but encouraging youth to stay alcohol and drug free will help them reach their full potential!

Law enforcement plans to use their experience, along with insight from youth to determine when to conduct party patrols and bar walkthroughs over the next few months. They also encourage community members to be a second pair of eyes and ears and report underage drinking concerns:

This enforcement initiative is one of five underage drinking strategies we implementing through the Iowa Partnerships for Success Grant, a project funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

]]>Mon, 08 May 2017 16:48:43 GMThttp://www.chickasawconnections.org/blog/grateful-to-be-a-part-of-a-successful-eventA lot of local businesses and groups were instrumental in bringing Coach Bigler here to speak to the New Hampton High School students and faculty, and to the community.Pathways was a key player in bringing him to the area, and I was fortunate to be a part of this project as part of my internship. My role was to create awareness of this event and get people from the community to the gymnasium to listen to him speak.To help spread the news of Coach Bigler’s arrival, I was in charge of several advertising efforts. This included making the flyer (photo below), and recording a radio advertisement to promote the event. I really enjoyed making the flyers because I was give a lot of freedom to be creative with it. I also recorded a message on 95.1 the Bull also that explained the event.

As I sat in the crowd during his speech, I was completely blown away! I had seen the video that featured his family on ESPN E:60, but seeing him in person and actually hearing him talk about his grandson and his son’s family was much more powerful than I could’ve imagined. This event was very eye opening, and really impacted myself and many others. Coach Bigler was very charismatic, and the powerpoint slide show he created for his grandson was very touching. I really enjoyed listening to his story, and would highly recommend for people who weren’t able to attend, to watch the recording on the Chickasaw Connections website and the ESPN special that was done on this family. It felt great knowing all the people in the community had the opportunity to witness Coach Bigler tell his family’s story! I loved being a part of this project, and loved having the hands on experience with it. Coach Bigler’s presentation was a huge success in my eyes, and I hope he will come again as the years go by to share his story with future generations.